Man City will 'crumble' warns Newcastle

NEWCASTLE United has told Manchester City its title challenge will ''crumble'' before a partisan St James' Park crowd tomorrow.

City, which leads the English Premier League on goal difference with two games to play, will move to the brink of its first championship for 44 years if they win at Newcastle tomorrow.

But following victory at Chelsea on Wednesday, and with striker Papiss Cisse in record-breaking goal-scoring form, Newcastle believes City's players may be unable to cope with the passion and intensity of the occasion.

Newcastle goalkeeper Tim Krul said: ''It's going to be electric on Sunday at St James'. We've beaten Man United and Sunderland at home and I'm sure the fans will generate the same atmosphere as they did in those two games. That will make teams crumble hopefully.

''I wouldn't feel any guilt if we stopped City from winning the title. We're fighting for our position and to be where we are is an incredible achievement.''

Newcastle has only lost twice at home this season - to Chelsea and West Bromwich Albion - and is unbeaten there since December.

Cisse, who was the Premier League most expensive January transfer, scored two breathtaking goals in the 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge and has scored 13 goals in his first 12 games, breaking Alan Shearer's record for the best start by a striker in the Premier League.

''On Sunday we'll do the right things that we've been doing all season and if we're solid we can hit them on the break,'' continued Krul. ''If you have a striker like Cisse in your team you'll win games. If you can keep a clean sheet he'll win you matches. His second goal against Chelsea was incredible, absolutely amazing.''

Krul has the unenviable task of trying to keep Cisse from scoring in training and he revealed the 26-year-old is a perfectionist, the like of which he has never encountered before. ''He gets so upset when he misses a chance in training,'' added the Holland international. ''Sometimes you'll see him arguing with himself for five minutes about how he missed it. It shows you what fantastic commitment he has.''

Cisse looks the complete striker, equally dangerous from distance as he is operating in and around the six-yard box as a poacher. Although prolific for Freiburg, an unfashionable club in Germany's Bundesliga, few predicted he would have such a phenomenal impact since his January move to Newcastle.

Jonas Gutierrez, the Argentinian winger who will look to wreck the title dream of compatriots Carlos Tevez and Sergio Aguero, claimed he ''did not know you could score'' a goal as good as Cisse's second against Chelsea.

His first, a volley after he had flicked the ball up to be hit on the edge of the area, was good, but the second in stoppage time was a swerving, curling, dipping drive with the outside of his boot from 25 metres and to the left of the area.

''It was a wonderful goal,'' said Cisse, who will play for Senegal in the Olympics. ''It was the best goal of my career - I was so happy to score it. When the ball came to me, I was only thinking about scoring. It was an instinctive finish.''

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